James Longenbach (Sept. 17, 1959 – July 29, 2022) was an Americancritic and
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
. His early critical work focused on
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
, but came to include contemporary poetry as well. His book of criticism, ''The Resistance to Poetry'', has been described as a "compact and exponentially provocative book."review of ''The Resistance to Poetry'' at the journal ''
Poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
''. Accessed 3 July 2006. Longenbach published six volumes of poetry including ''Earthling'' (2017), which was a finalist for the
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".
Career
Longenbach received his bachelor's degree in 1981 from
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in Hartford, Connecticut and subsequently received his Ph.D. from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
.
Longenbach was Joseph Henry Gilmore Professor of English at the
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...
and taught at the University from 1985 until his death in 2022. His poems also appeared in many magazines and journals, including ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'', ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'', and ''
The Yale Review
''The Yale Review'' is the oldest literary journal in the United States. It is published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
It was founded in 1819 as ''The Christian Spectator'' to support Evangelicalism. Over time it began to publish more on ...
Boston Review
''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...
'', ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
Joanna Scott
Joanna Scott (born June 22, 1960) is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Her award-winning fiction is known for its wide-ranging subject matter and its incorporation of historical figures into imagined narratives.
A native of ...
(and fellow Trinity graduate) whom he met in Rome, Italy in 1981. Scott eventually taught in the English Department of the University of Rochester.
Longenbach died at age 62 from cancer on July 29, 2022 in Stonington, Connecticut. He was survived by his wife and their two daughters.
Selected bibliography
Prose
* ''Modernist Poetics of History: Pound, Eliot, and the Sense of the Past'' (1987)
* ''Stone Cottage: Pound, Yeats & Modernism'' (1988; Oxford University Press)
* ''Ezra Pound’s Poetry and Prose: Contributions to Periodicals in Ten Volumes'' (1991) (co-editor)
* ''Wallace Stevens: The Plain Sense of Things'' (1991; Oxford University Press)
* ''Modern Poetry After Modernism'' (1997; Oxford University Press)
* ''The Resistance to Poetry'' (2005; University of Chicago Press)
* ''The Art of the Poetic Line'' (Dec. 2007; Graywolf Press)
* ''How Poems Get Made'' (2018; W.W. Norton & Company)
* ''The Lyric Now'' (2020; University of Chicago Press)
Poetry
* ''Threshold: Poems'' (1998; University of Chicago Press)
* ''Fleet River: Poems'' (2003; University of Chicago Press)
* ''Draft of a Letter: Poems'' (Apr. 2007; University of Chicago Press)
* ''the iron key: poems'' (2012; W.W. Norton & Company)
* ''earthling: poems'' (2017; W.W. Norton & Company)
* ''forever: poems'' (2021; W.W. Norton & Company)
Loggernaut Loggernaut Reading Series is a reading series in Portland, Oregon founded in 2005. Each reading features three readers and a prompt to which they respond. It is currently curated by Jesse Lichtenstein, Erin Ergenbright, and Pauls Toutonghi.
Past re ...
Lannan Foundation
The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...